- Independent mental health service
St Andrew's Healthcare - Birmingham
Assessment report published 23 August 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
St Andrew’s Healthcare Birmingham is a purpose-built facility operated by St Andrew’s Healthcare, a national registered charity. St Andrew’s Healthcare Birmingham was registered with CQC in December 2011 to deliver the regulated activities of:
Assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983; and
Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
We carried out a mix of onsite and offsite inspection and assessment activity from 15 July to 1 August 2025. This was an unannounced assessment, which means the provider was not told in advance that an assessment was going to be starting. We began with a nighttime inspection visit.
We assessed the service to review the progress made against the warning notice that was served on the provider following the inspection in November 2024. We found that the service had made improvements and had met the actions of the warning notice.
The service had a controlled drugs accountable officer and a Registered Manager.
We visited the following wards as part of the assessment:
Edgbaston ward, a medium secure ward for men with 15 beds
Hawkesley ward, a medium secure ward for men with 15 beds
Hazelwell ward, a low secure ward for men with16 beds
Hurst ward, a low secure ward for men with 16 beds
Lifford ward, a low secure ward for older men 16 beds
Northfield ward, a low secure ward for men 16 beds
Moor Green ward, a low secure ward for women with16 beds
Speedwell ward, a low secure ward for men with16 beds.
At this assessment we assessed the 1 assessment service group at the hospital; Forensic inpatient or secure wards. We assessed all quality statements across the five key questions: safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led.
During this assessment we spoke with 16 patients and 67 members of staff, including hospital managers, nurses, healthcare assistants and members of the multidisciplinary team. We inspected the ward environments and clinic rooms at the hospital. We observed staff and patient interactions on the wards including 4 community meetings. We reviewed 35 patient care records including 3 seclusion reviews, 5 electronic prescribing records and we tracked 6 safeguarding incident reports. We reviewed minutes of various meetings, policies and procedures, data and documents relevant to the running of the service.
The team that inspected this service comprised 4 CQC inspectors, 3 CQC bank inspectors , 1 CQC senior specialist, 1 CQC clinical fellow, 1 CQC medicines inspector and 5 Specialist Advisors, experienced in the field of forensic mental health.
At this assessment we identified breaches of regulations in: regulation 12 - Safe Care and Treatment and regulation 17 - Good Governance. We found 2 breaches of regulations in relation to: medicines management and in leadership impact and implementation of policies and procedures. At our last assessment we rated this service as Requires Improvement. At this assessment we found improvements had been made but the rating has remained Requires Improvement.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.